By Dan Goldberg
The Cuomo administration on Friday announced that health insurance
rates on the individual market would increase by a weighted average of
16.6 percent, the largest individual market hike since the Affordable
Care Act began in 2014.
The new rates take effect in January; open enrollment on the state’s exchange begins Nov. 1.
Rates in the small group market will increase by a weighted average of 8.3 percent.
Health insurance reaction was relatively muted as insurance companies
digested the news that they would collect higher premiums — though
still not as high as they might have liked — and compared themselves to
their competitors.
“We believe this year’s process, which provided an opportunity for
plans and DFS staff to have constructive discussions about the impact of
these factors, was an improvement on previous years,” said Leslie
Moran, a spokeswoman for the New York Health Plan Association, which
represents insurers. “We look forward to working with DFS to ensure the
rate setting process continues to offer greater transparency.”
For years, insurers have accused the state’s Department of Financial
Services of playing politics with the rates, keeping them artificially
low at the expense of insurers’ bottom lines, an accusation the Cuomo
administration has repeatedly denied.
This year, there was certainly more of a mind meld between the administration and the majority of insurers.
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